{"id":107193,"date":"2026-07-23T12:15:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=107193"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:15:55","slug":"connecting-to-indigenous-roots-takes-more-than-just-showing-up-with-a-status-card-and-dna-author-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/connecting-to-indigenous-roots-takes-more-than-just-showing-up-with-a-status-card-and-dna-author-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting to Indigenous roots takes more than just showing up with a status card and DNA, author says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Jenn Ashton is clear: Growing My Way Home: Stories of Resilience and Care may be classified as an autobiographical fiction, but it is her true story. The abuse, the time as a runaway and in juvie, the broken marriages, the miscarriages, the drugs and alcohol abuse are all what she lived. The fiction part comes in how she connects the pieces of her life. \u201cThere’s a lot of people out there who don’t like the term autofiction because it seems like a lie and they don’t know which parts are real and which parts aren’t. So, I always want to start off by saying the book is real,\u201d said Ashton, who is a “status Indian” with S\u1e35wx\u0331w\u00fa7mesh (Squamish) Nation in British Columbia…. <\/p>\n

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\u00a0By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Jenn Ashton is clear: Growing My Way Home: Stories of Resilience and Care may be classified as an autobiographical fiction, but it is her true story. The abuse, the time as a runaway and in juvie, the broken marriages, the miscarriages, the drugs and alcohol abuse are all what she lived. The fiction part comes in how she connects the pieces of her life. \u201cThere’s a lot of people out there who don’t like the term autofiction because it seems like a lie and they don’t know which parts are real and which parts aren’t. So, I always want to start off by saying the book is real,\u201d said Ashton, who is a “status Indian” with S\u1e35wx\u0331w\u00fa7mesh (Squamish) Nation in British Columbia.... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nConnecting to Indigenous roots takes more than just showing up with a status card and DNA, author says - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/connecting-to-indigenous-roots-takes-more-than-just-showing-up-with-a-status-card-and-dna-author-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Connecting to Indigenous roots takes more than just showing up with a status card and DNA, author says - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Jenn Ashton is clear: Growing My Way Home: Stories of Resilience and Care may be classified as an autobiographical fiction, but it is her true story. 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